Happytalk wins
I’ve just about finished my Open Access Day blog entry. It’s definitely among the better writing I’ve done, and it will get better as I fiddle with it over the next two weeks. I found a narrative thread to run through it, and that always helps.
I’m not sanguine it’ll win, though. It’s good writing, and apropos, and there’s humor in it as well as solid storytelling—but it’s not happytalk. If I ever knew how to do happytalk, I’ve forgotten. If there’s a word for my Open Access Day blog post, it’s “edgy.”
I swear I don’t do this on purpose. I didn’t know what I was setting out to write as I was writing it; I just knew what the beginning was, and some of the bits in the middle. I got to the end finally and was dismayed. Sometimes, damn it, the writing writes me.
I’ve set it, if my Wordpress-fu comes through, to publish automatically at midnight on October 14. You’ll be able to judge for yourselves then.